The general packet radios system (GPRS) is a system that is used for transmitting Internet Protocol packets between user devices such as cellular phones and the Internet. The GPRS system includes the GPRS core network, which is an integrated part of the global system for mobile communication (GSM). These systems are widely utilized by cellular phone network providers to enable cellular phone services over large areas.
Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Services (MBMS) is a broadcasting service offered via cellular phone networks. Enhanced MBMS (eMBMS) is used to denominate MBMS service in an evolved packet core system including enhanced universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) (i.e., long term evolution (LTE)) and UTRAN access.
eMBMS is specified by 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) and gives the opportunity to broadcast television (TV) and film programming, information such as free overnight transmissions of newspapers in a digital form or file download in these cellular phone service networks. The most prominent application is Mobile TV. However, eMBMS may also be used to off-load unicast by pre-loading of popular content such as YouTube, “Top 10” or CNN pages containing breaking news.
The broadcast capability of eMBMS enables it to reach a large number of users with constant network load. Further, eMBMS also enables the possibility to broadcast information simultaneously to a large number of cellular subscribers, for example, eMBMS can be used to distribute emergency alerts. However, eMBMS can place a heavy load on the network elements that implement the protocol. In particular, the eMBMS-GW can carry a heavy load. In situations where a split-architecture is implemented in the evolved packet core (EPC), the eMBMS traffic traverses network nodes such as smart service router (SSR) nodes, which is not a scalable solution for the increase in eMBMS traffic. The network nodes can include multiple router boards or line cards to do external and internal switching, and processing boards to handle both signaling and traffic processing